Although a great amount of organic waste is produced in typical residential households and the like, there is no system available to allow for bioconversion of such wastes to produce usable gaseous byproducts for use in operating the residence. The systems for use in anaerobically digesting municipal sewage or livestock waste are not sufficient for the handling of residential wastes in a safe and convenient manner. Further, the municipal or commercial applications where organic waste materials are handled may be more effectively dealt with to produce useful energy.
In known anaerobic digestion systems, digestion rates can be reduced due to the lack of complete digestion. This can be due to poor growth of the microbes which digest the organic material as well as the lack of intimate contact with the microbes. It would be desirable to provide a system and methods which could be applied to residential organic waste materials to provide efficient and substantially automatic operation to enhance the growth of microbes and digestion of the waste materials.
It should be evident also that such prior systems are not designed for use in the residential environment, where concerns of safety, convenience, and effectiveness for wastes produced in such an environment are not considered, nor the possible nuisance that such systems may create due to odors or contamination. It would be desirable to provide systems and methods useful for such an environment, to provide co-generation of energy resources for operation of residential systems. Problems in such an environment include reduced efficiency due to lack of providing an anaerobic environment in which bioconversion can be performed. Additionally, due to the nature of wastes in such an environment, systems are easily clogged from scum and inert materials within the waste stream, causing the need to unclog the system which can result in introduction of oxygen into the system. Other problems relate to the types of organic wastes produced in such an environment, where the content of a waste stream is non-uniform, and may vary in organic content significantly. It would be desirable to provide systems and methods for use in such environments which overcomes these problems.